The Pantons were blessed to return to Jogja to celebrate the marriage of two good friends, Simpli and Angga. 

Mike and Lawrencia first felt the call to missions as students in Chi Alpha campus ministry at the University of Virginia. After graduating, they got married and moved to Jogjakarta, Indonesia in 2017 to join a team focused on campus ministry. “Reach the campus; change the nation.” Ultimately, Indonesians will reach Indonesia, so the Pantons started small groups and began doing discipleship training, locally and nationally. The prayer is that every small group would become a missional arm of the church: to make disciples and reach the unreached. After eight years serving in Jogja, the Pantons transitioned out of doing strictly campus ministry to join a church in Medan a little over a year ago. There, they work with the team to build a culture of discipleship across the greater church body and to raise up church planters. Medan is a city of nearly 5,000,000 people (5th largest city in Indonesia) and is on the unreached island of Sumatra. It’s also strategically placed amongst two prominent unreached people groups: the Mandailing and the Aceh. Together, they total about 5,000,000 people but only 0.01% know Jesus. Mike and Lawrencia’s heart is to disciple people in Medan so they can reach their unreached brethren in some of the most unreached parts of Indonesia.  

Prayer requests from Mike and Lawrencia:    

Pray for the Aceh and Mandailing unreached people groups in and around Medan. Pray for more laborers to come serve and share the Gospel in this beautiful country   

 As the church grows, we will be going back to four Sunday services in 2027. Pray for the transition back to four services to go smoothly.

Our Connections Pastor recently stepped down, and we will be taking over many of her previous responsibilities including overseeing the first impressions teams. Pray for us as we shepherd those teams and for wisdom on how to best transition new people into Life Groups  

Pray for the unreached Muslim community The church is opening a community center in the city (goal is January) to provide periodic medical/dental check-ups, English lessons, food, etc. Pray for the community surrounding the center to hear and receive the Gospel through these opportunities.

Pray for each Life Group to be a missional arm to church, reaching out to nonbelievers and disciplining believers.